Theater preview: A view to a "Tragedy"

Playwright Stephen Metcalfe shares a rehearsal moment with cast member Monique Gaffney on the set of "The Tragedy of the Commons," getting its world premiere at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town.
— Sean M. Haffey

Playwright Stephen Metcalfe shares a rehearsal moment with cast member Monique Gaffney on the set of "The Tragedy of the Commons," getting its world premiere at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town.
— Sean M. Haffey

One day about four years ago, Stephen Metcalfe gazed out his window in La Jolla and spotted an idea for a play.

That view to an inspiration actually sprang from a fear of losing his home’s inspirational view. As the veteran playwright and screenwriter tells it, multiple oversized “McMansions” had begun sprouting up on the former sites of older homes nearby, and it looked possible that one soon might obstruct Metcalfe’s satisfying sightlines as well.

That prospect didn’t come to pass, but the possibility set Metcalfe to thinking about the consequences of such change, as well as researching the laws and literature on the topic.

“The more I got into it, the more it seemed the loss of a view was also the loss of resources — precious resources,” Metcalfe said. “(It was) equating a view with air, with open spaces, with public resources.”

Metcalfe wove those and other ideas together with what might seem like some unlikely theatrical elements — a premise (and title) borrowed from an ecological treatise, a main character who blogs onstage — to come up with “The Tragedy of the Commons,” receiving its world premiere at Cygnet Theatre beginning this week.

The play is far from being just about a nice view. The plight of its main character, an older man named Dakin, comes to represent anxieties about environmental degradation, the tension between selfish interests and the common good, even the reverberations of national trauma.

At its center, said Cygnet artistic director Sean Murray, is “the question of, ‘At what cost are you willing to stand up for what you believe in?’ ”

In a way, both Cygnet and Metcalfe are taking stands of their own with this play. “The Tragedy of the Commons” is the 7-year-old theater’s first world premiere. And it marks a high-profile return by Metcalfe to the San Diego theater scene, where he was a fixture some two decades ago, but has not been seen much since.

Starting with “Strange Snow” in 1984, Metcalfe premiered a string of plays at the Old Globe Theatre, including 1988’s “White Linen,” which starred a then-unknown Alice Ripley — a Tony-winner in 2009 as lead actress in the musical “Next to Normal.” (Ripley closes a run of the touring version in San Diego today.)

Many of Metcalfe’s plays went on to be produced around the country. Then, Hollywood came calling: Metcalfe was hired as the (uncredited) rewrite man on what became the hit Julia Roberts movie “Pretty Woman.” Soon after, “Strange Snow” was adapted into the movie “Jacknife” starring Robert De Niro.

A long stint in the movie business followed, as Metcalfe worked on projects from “Turner and Hooch” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus” to the rare script of his own, such as “Beautiful Joe.”